2018 A4DE: Back to Its Birthplace

Three months back, we awoke to the news that the 2017 Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE) in Toowoomba had been cancelled. On the one hand, it was sad that such an iconic annual event – and one that had run uninterrupted since its inception in 1978 – couldn’t attract enough entries to make it financially viable (which, of course, had a lot to do with how poorly it was promoted). But on the other hand, it was a blessing in disguise because this cancellation meant that the 2018 Yamaha A4DE, to be held at the event’s 1978 birthplace in Cessnock, would combine both the 40^th running of the event and its 40-year anniversary. Yep, it’s almost as if fate played a hand in returning the 4-Day to its spiritual homeland for such as auspicious occasion.

In addition to the traditional enduro classes, the 2018 Yamaha A4DE will also include a Vintage class for older bikes and riders, plus a special class for those who rode the inaugural 4-Day in 1978. Fittingly called the “John Hall ’78ers”, these guys will take part in a demonstration event during the event’s final moto on Day 4.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for some very exciting news for the April 3-7 2018 Yamaha A4DE.
But in the meantime, let’s reflect on the foundations of the Australian 4-Day Enduro, and return to a memorable 2010 interview with Cessnock Motorcycle Club’s John Hall – the legendary figure who was the driving force behind the iconic event’s birth in 1978…

In 1977, the first team Australia ever sent to the International Six-Days Enduro (ISDE) returned from Czechoslovakia with their tails between their legs, having posted a 100% DNF-rate. It was damn tough ISDE that year, but the result remained an embarrassment to Australia’s proud off-road fraternity, and it gave the Cessnock Motorcycle Club an idea: to create an event back home that’d prepare our riders and support crews for the notoriously torrid ISDE. And that’s how the Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE) was conceived and born – in Cessnock, over the Easter holiday break of 1978. Of the 125 riders who entered, just 43 completed the saturated course, with Victoria’s Norm Watts – father of former EWC and GNCC champ, Shane – the inaugural winner.

The “4-Day”, as it became affectionately known, has been a regular fixture on the off-road race calendar ever since, and is regarded as Australia’s premier off-road event. Back in the ’80s, it attracted international greats such as America’s Dick Burleson and Europe’s Joachim Sauer and Sven-Eric Jonsson, with Mika Ahola, Juha Salminen, David Knight, Joel Smets and Antoine Meo all competing in more recent years. Plus, Australia’s Shane Watts, Glenn Kearney, Stefan Merriman, Jake Stapleton, Josh Strang, Matthew Phillips and Daniel Milner have all made a point of returning from their EWC or GNCC gigs to race the thing.

Widely regarded as the doyen of Australia’s off-road scene, the late John Hall spoke to Transmoto’s Andy Wigan in 2010 about the conception and maiden running of the A4DE way back in 1978. Sadly, after a long battle with cancer, John died just two months after this interview was filmed.